Joe McNally Photography

Happily, I was in Donald’s company last week in Santa Fe, when a storm came up. Wind was rattling through the old penitentiary, speaking in tongues, maybe in the voices of those who died so viciously there. I looked outside, and looked at the sky. Then I went looking for Donald.

Donald and I go back a ways now. I think the reason I’ve been able to knock off the occasional good frame of him is that I like him so damn much. To say he is wise and decent is to understate the case. He is a soulful, a twinkly eyed water witcher of the human spirit. He finds what is good in people.

He recognizes the flip side, too. We had a hoot sitting and talking last week. He arched his brows as he mentioned a couple of posing experiences he had lately, referring to one shooter we had mutual knowledge of as “as bull headed pain in the ass.” Ah, Donald. Not only wise, but to the point. Photogs need to remember they make an impression, and it’s a lasting one.

I’ve seen him weather his own storms. He is a cancer survivor, and a few years back, he kept coming to class, posing for the workshops, without his wonderful swatch of white hair. That danger receded, and his hair grew back, and blessedly, he kept working for the workshops. And when he comes to class, he comes to class. He brings his own clothes rack, and array of boots that would stock your average western apparel store, multiple hats, dusters, overcoats, and ties. He is always early.

And, he knows more about lighting than your average Joe. I’ve seen him coach a workshop participant. “You’re gonna wanna lower that light.” He’s invariably right.

We shot this together in a matter of minutes, again, ’cause we know and trust each other. We jumped up in a pickup bed to get some elevation. I told Mike Sakas, who was working with me to help him up, even though I knew that was fruitless. Donald jumped into the back of the pickup easier than I did, that’s for sure. Help? Not in his vocabulary, unless he’s offering that to others.

Shot it with a D3X, 24-70mm lens, and a Quadra pack and head, jacked into a small strip light soft box. Maxed the Quadra to give me about f22, so I could drag shutter to about an eighth or so. Hoping the wind might whip his hair into a frenzy, which it did. The wind almost whipped poor Michael away, trying desperately to position the light. See below, shot by Garrett Garms.

With my course assistants Michael, Meghan, and Sakas coaching me, I pushed and pulled this a touch in post. (Mongo push slider! Mongo like!) They were great. I felt like a person in a self help workshop, being coached to overcome some debilitating malady or fear. “You can do it Joe! Just use the slider! You can walk! Walk to me Joe!”

Donald don’t really need much pushing and pulling. He is comfortable in his own skin, and that’s the way I’ve always shot him. He loves his honey, and takes her out on the dance floor every week. He told me at one point, “Joe, we really complicated our lives this past year. We learned a new dance step.”

He also said to me once, “Joe, the day they put me down, all the music in the world’s gonna stop.”

Here’s to the music playing for a long time…..more tk….

My bud Moose Peterson has a book coming out soon, called Captured. (Not to be confused with David Ziser’s new book, Captured by the Light, in which David stalks the wild bridezilla.) No, this one is an account of the Mooster’s stalking of wild and beautiful things for the last 30 years or so, and it’s going to be a corker. I tell ya, I wish I had velcroed myself to Moose’s tripod more often during the last 25 or so DLWS events I’ve taught with him. I’m out there, you know, trying to get into the zen of it, stumbling around repeating the mantra in my head, “Rock, tree, mmmmm…..rock, tree, mmmmm.” But after a couple hours of trying to find sunrise light, I have to admit that little voice in my head starts going, “Rock, tree, pancake……rock, tree, coffee….”

I can’t help it. I’m such a boob out there I once walked up to Moose and said, “Hey, whatcha shootin’?” He just looked at me and said, “You’re standing on it.” He was shooting all these little flower type things that I looked down and couldn’t really see any more ’cause they were under my shoes. It can piss you off, you know. I come back with squat and he comes back with some zinger of a photo that, right in front of the class he then launches into some piece of software that he’s on the beta team for that’s called “I Can’t Talk About This Software Right Now Because I’ll Have to Kill You But You Will Want It, Version 1.2.1.” And in minutes, he’s got this print that could hang in the Smithsonian. As I’ve said before, the guy’s a walking, talking main frame with a soul of an artist and a camera in his hands.

The book’s on pre-order on Amazon……

Syl Arena’s been toting a bag of Canon flashes all over the country, offering lucid explanation and teaching about the mysteries of the Canon flash code. He’s got a book coming that he’s been researching and writing like crazy, and all I can say is that Syl has dived so deep into the arcane symbology of these flashes that he probably feels like he is starring in his own personal version of Angels and Demons, with the Canon engineers cast as the Illuminati. Syl’s hair actually has similarities to Tom Hanks’ do in that movie.

What am I saying? Nobody on the planet has hair like Syl.

Actually, what Syl is doing might be closer to The Book of Eli. So, if you pick up a red haired hitchhiker on some sun blasted highway in the desert, with a shoulder bag spilling out wires and batteries, and he gets into the car, and says simply, “Ratio,” you’ ll know you’ve met Syl.

But the book is coming, and his classes are ongoing. He really does a great job at explaining in day to day language the heretofore unexplainable. After this book comes out, Canon engineers will be begging to simply touch the hem of his cloak.

Bert Stephani, who I’ve never met but feel a cosmic connection to via the similar chords of twisted humor we seem to share, has a lighting video out that is very cool. I’ve checked in on him largely through David Hobby’s blog, which periodically features a lighting vignette by Bert. I admit I got hooked after Bert had a segment where he ended up with “Iggy Pop Light,” which to me wins the original award for describing light. Definitely head over to his website.

Michael Clark, is, well, intrepid is the way I would describe him. He goes places with a camera in his hand that I would need to rent a helicopter just to get close to. Now, some folks, once seeing his stuff, might construe “intrepid” to be “really frikkin’ crazy,” but that’s up to them. To me, the fact that he gets out there and gets his cameras in decidedly different places from definitely different angles is way cool. And then he does this terrific book, and talks about it, from the exposures to the kinds of rope you need. (I need to ask him if there is a rope designed for me.) We met a few years back at my class in Santa Fe, and he’s just doing wonderful stuff. Check out his newly launched blog.

And that irrepressible bloke, Drew Gardner, continues to write his passionate blog, and spread his madcap glee about being a shooter all over the place. He recently taught a workshop in South Africa called The Township Project, in which he brought photographic skills and knowledge into a place that certainly isn’t on the map of the photo world. These kids responded like crazy. As he says, small things make a difference. Equipment was left behind to continue to experiment with, and future workshops are planned. Fingers crossed, as he says, the kids may get a crack at a show in London.

Good stuff, by good people…..more tk….

I’ve been friend of the house since 911. Known as the “Miracle House,” they were among the first responders on that day, but lost no men. Miracle, indeed.

Capt. Jay Jonas (now a chief), and firefighters Matty Komorowski, Mike Meldrum, Billy Butler, Sal D’agostino, and Tommy Falco  were with Josephine Harris, coaxing her down a stairwell, quickly, but not quickly enough, as all 6, who were aware the first tower had already come down, knew quite well.

They didn’t leave her, or each other. Which meant all of them were in the same space when the North Tower came down on them. Somehow, even though the entire landing rotated 360 degrees during the collapse, it stayed intact, and they all lived. Turned out Josephine’s pace of descent was a lifesaver. Those above and below that blessed piece of stairwell didn’t fare well.

If you want to read an interview account of that day, and those stairs, hit this link. Stone Phillips did a good job, letting the guys just talk about what happened in there, minute by minute.

Capt. Jonas (now chief)

Firefighter Bill Butler (now lieutenant)

Firefighter Sal D’Agostino

Josephine Harris

Firefighter Matt Komorowski (now lieutenant)

Firefighter Tommy Falco (retired)

Firefighter Mike Meldrum (retired)

They took a leap of faith and came to the Giant Polaroid camera, and are included in the book Faces of Ground Zero. Since then, the  house and I have stayed in touch. They’re good people. And they handle a lot of stuff. Fighting fires in Chinatown has unique difficulties. It’s a warren of aging buildings jammed together in one of NY’s oldest and most charismatic neighborhoods, and, as one might imagine, not too much corresponds to building codes and blueprints. Surprise walls, mysterious, makeshift staircases, overloaded circuits, boilers that might have been built in the days of steamships–all this can present in the middle of the night, in the middle of a fire.

There’s been some big fires of late, lots of activity, and a bunch of the guys got medals, which was an occasion to have the whole house come together. Medal day. So, picture day. Call Joe.

I’ve done it before, a few years ago, in a rainstorm. I tell ya, if you gotta do a group shot in pelting rain, make sure it’s a bunch of firefighters. All smiles, not a word of complaint, everybody looking at the camera.

Last week, it was sunny, which was a different photographic problem, for sure. Did it all small flash, eight total, six on high stands. Three camera right, three camera left, master hot shoe unit doubling as a flash, and one up top on high boom, for good measure.

Now, you don’t see this type of light in the ads in Vanity Fair. Lush, it ain’t. But effective, yes. This shot isn’t about the light, or the shooter, or the numbers of pixels. This is about recognition, about every guy here going home and saying to his wife, girlfriend or kids, “There, see, there I am.” Not a time for subtlety, just a time to bring the light, and make sure everybody sees it.

Speaking of pixels, I shot it D3X, going to ISO 400. If I had to go higher, would have switched out to D3S, which handles higher ISO’s well. Had three groups going, all wireless, all manual. Yep, no time to mess with the TTL squirrels on this one. Sent them all a signal to go manual, ½ power and then tapered it to ¼. Which is the reason for multiple lights. Coulda done it with fewer, but would have taxed them pretty hard, and, it being an active house that could have gotten a call at any moment, I didn’t want to wait on recycle. Shot about 25 frames, and we were done. Told all the guys they had to see the camera with both eyes. You forget sometimes, you know, ’cause when you can see the camera you think it’s all cool. But you might be seeing it with just one eye, and that means the other half of your face ain’t in the picture. So I had the guys do the blink thing, back and forth, so I knew I had everybody’s eyeballs.

Also got the lights way high. Reason being, you want to fly the flash literally over the front rows to the back rows. Light from eye level the gang up front gets nuked before you can get anything to guys in the way back. So get the lights high up, and the downward spill will take care of the front rows.

Group shots are tough, right? Don’t know a single shooter who really likes to do them. About 1000 ways to screw it up, and only one or two to do it “right.” But it’s cool stuff, ’cause these are some of the most important pictures of life. This is the stuff of memory. These get passed on. These hang on walls.

Maybe, someday, when my pixels have long since turned to dust, one of the young guys in this picture, somebody with a girlfriend now, will return to the house with his grandchildren. He can point to this shot, hanging on the wall, and say, “That was me, a long time ago.” And they’ll look, and he’ll be there, face filled with light, looking at the camera with both eyes.

Keith Johnson (seated, 2^nd from right) is a good guy, and the walking, talking definition of the word “gregarious.” He called out to me at camera and told me to make sure I made him look good. Told him no problem, I had a sub-menu of custom functions buried deep in my X that I’ve come to call the “Keith Johnson Function.” Just makes everybody look good. I’m thinking about talking to Nikon about it. More tk….

Just returned from the Middle East. Was very honored to be invited by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage to work with regionally based photographers. What it meant for us here at the studio is that Drew and I bounced to the Middle East twice in the last month, first to GPP in Dubai, and now, Abu Dhabi. Hectic, but fun. The class was terrific. Good group of folks, and talented shooters. It is an area of the world that is endlessly fascinating, and I have always been received graciously, and I learn a great deal. Doing stuff like this re-convinces me of one thing–travel is the graduate school of life.

Amin leaps in the lobby of the Emirates Palace Hotel. Quick impromptu shot done off the cuff in the middle of the lobby of a 7 star hotel. Try this without insurance, permissions, a letter from the Governor, and a 5 month email paper trail at The Plaza in NY. Uh, that would be no.

Mariam bouncing light.

Shua frames a shot.

The off camera TTL flash gang in the desert.

Amin, a break dancer from Morocco, is inexhaustible.

Sahar shows Eva, a fashion model, how to pose.

Cool Kholloud. (aka, David Hobby plant)

Flipping in the desert

Sheikh Numnuts and Sheikh Drew of the Desert

Shot this pre-dawn on Monday, about 6am Abu Dhabi time, in the second largest mosque in the world. Back home, it was still Easter Sunday. What an amazing world. More tk….

The Gulf Photo Plus gang has just posted the video from the shootout with David Hobby, Zack Arias, and Joey L. It’s a hoot. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the crowd was the real beneficiary of all the humor, sweat and photographic expertise that was on display during each shooter’s allotted 20 or so minutes. I hadda boogie to the airport, so I missed the processing of the Polaroid with Joey L, but I was privileged to kibitz a bit while David and Zack knocked it back. It was, at the end of the day, after all the “I will crush you” bantering that occurred, just an event based on mutual respect and friendship amongst all the instructors. That of course, and treachery, skulduggery, pocket wizard frequency manipulation, swiped Canon cameras, model mayhem (in the sense there were two, instead of the assumed one), and some dip in the audience with a microphone offering inane commentary.

Check it out HERE.

More tk….